Sabre Yacht field trip

   The yacht design class took a field trip to Sabre Yachts on Friday. The company is about 45 minutes away from Kennebunkport. (Our instructors told us it was an hour and a half away to trick us into getting there on time. We were all in charge of getting there on our own. So a lot of us were there pretty early. Dumb.)
   This field trip was a lot more beneficial compared to previous trips because I've learned so much. I was able to walk around and look at parts of the boat and know what all of it was. The man giving us the tour was using all kinds of fancy boat language and I was able to understand every word (Okay, maybe there were a couple words that were over my head when he started talking about the ventilation system. But we haven't covered that in class yet!)

   

   I saw a LOT of 3M products around the shop. 

   They use "yellow foam" as a core material in their hulls. This yellow foam is the exact same stuff we use in Industrial Design at ISU for making models and prototypes. So that was neat.

   

   Sabre's attention to detail is crazy. The do all custom cabinetry. We watched some girls varnishing doors and stuff before it is installed onto the boat.... and then later saw that same girl inside of the boat with a flashlight touching up anything she could. 

   Their COO is a guy who was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. He wasn't at work when we were touring, so I didn't get to introduce myself. I told the guy who was giving us a tour to at least tell the guy from Des Moines that one of The Landing School kids is also from Iowa and went to Iowa State... and that I say hello? Haha. Idk.
   Speaking of Iowa State, TJ Maxx in Biddeford, MAINE has Iowa State sweatshirts. Odd.

   After the tour we ate at this place. Buck's Naked BBQ. Is it a chain? I hadn't heard of it. But I think that was the best burger I've ever had in my life (or maybe I was just happy to finally eat real food after trying to eat healthy the last two or three weeks). Our instructor, Derek, recommended it, so most of the class stopped there to eat together. So good. They also had a weird drink on the menu... a Mojito with a pineapple glazed rib in it. Looked gross but we all were tempted to try it anyway. But we decided against getting alcoholic drinks with our instructors at 11:00 in the morning before going back to school. 

   I went to The Hive again on Friday and Saturday. This band was playing Friday night and they were fantastic. I am SO EXCITED that they are playing again in Portland when Devin and I will be there. 

Muddy Ruckus & the Burners with Ryan Flaherty

   The guy singing in this video is Ryan Flaherty. The other two are different people from who performed at The Hive. So I'm not sure what to expect when the band performs in Portland. But I still plan on checking it out.

   This is the last week of the semester. Which means I'm half way done with yacht design school. It is going by fast. I turn in my sailboat project this Friday. Here is the most recent homework I turned in. We had to design the sail plan. It included calculations like sail area, center of effort, center of lift, and moment and load calculations to determine how thick the mast and lines/ropes had to be so they don't break.

This is the technical CAD drawing.

This is me playing on my Cintiq.

Happy :)

   I am happy I got to hang out with this beautiful dog during my two week break from school. 

   Being back in Maine is good too, though. The semester is almost over. I am finishing up a final design project that will be turned in on January 31. It is the 11.15 meter sailboat. I designed everything from the machinery arrangement, interior layout, sail and rigging plan, and so on. It has been a lot of fun. I guess the only complaint I have is that they gave us the shell of the boat from the beginning. The exterior style and shape of the boat was predetermined. I look forward to future projects later in the year where I get to decide on the exterior styling of the yacht. This brings up another point... We only learned about sailboat design for the first semester. During the second semester we get to learn about power boats. I am much more interested in designing powerboats, so I am excited to start. 

   I tried another new recipe this weekend. Chicken pesto pasta. But I didn't make the pesto sauce myself... I didn't even mince garlic... I used a garlic paste instead. It was still good though! Really good. I especially liked the crushed red pepper part because I like spicy food. It was a very easy recipe so I didn't mess it up... Garlic, crushed red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, chicken, noodles, and pesto. 

   I follow "Earth Pics" on Twitter. It just posts cool pictures of places around the world... cool vacation destinations... stuff like that. It recently posted a picture of people swimming in Greece. Look at how similar this picture is to a picture of ME swimming in Cinque Terre, Italy.

Random people in Greece

Paige Mitchell in Italy

   I am having a fish problem. Poor Rocco II might have to be renamed to Sammi II... Because he has a bad tail like Sammi. But the fish might be on its way to the toilet any day now, so naming him Sammi would make me sad. So his new name is Nemo II. He had a hard time adjusting to the new tank water I gave them. He got sick and was basically immobile... so the other two fish ate his tail. But he is feeling much better and has been swimming around the tank as happy as can be for the past week now.. with no tail. See... look at it compared to the other two fish tails:

   I got a Wacom Cintiq for Christmas and am having a lot of fun playing on it! I haven't created any masterpieces YET. But I will be sure to post them as I complete them.

   This reminds me that I finished Kelly's drawing of Tom Hanks. The drawing is Tom  Hanks in character in the movie Cloud Atlas. I am very happy with the results and I think Kelly was too. Here is the drawing:

   The weather had been so nice in Kennebunkport since I got back from vacation. It had been above freezing every day and even reach the 50's a few of the days. Almost all of the snow was melted and the golf course was even green! But then this happened on Saturday... Oh well. It is pretty:

   And for the most EXCITING news: I have had some success in the job search lately! I had a great interview with a company in Florida and am flying down there to visit their office in a couple weeks. I hope to have more to say about that later. :)



   Thats all for now... and I just thought this picture was funny:

Snow

   Well it finally snowed.

   There used to be steps leading up to my front door. Today the snow was the same height as the top step. I went outside to start digging my car out but decided that, because the snow was as deep as the hood of my car, I'd wait to see if my apartment building has snow removal elves that do it for me. I'm glad I waited. I only swept off the snow that was on top of my car. I went back outside around 3:30 and most of the snow was removed. I only had to shovel around my car tires. One of my teachers drove by as I was shoveling and honked, laughed, and waved. I drove around the block to make sure I was able to get out. Hopefully I don't have a problem getting to school in the morning now. 

   We have a Christmas dinner at school tomorrow. Not sure what will be served, but the Thanksgiving dinner was really good. Don't worry, Tootie, I'll only eat the green beans with no butter or salt.... NOT. 

   My friend from school, Sherwayne, invited me to The Hive in Kennebunk last Thursday to see a pottery demonstration. The Hive is an art gallery/cafe/studio that recently opened up. I met the girl who was hired to basically run the place. Her name is Rachel (not in any of the pictures). The guy who owns the place opened it up for something to do. He hasn't been around for the past two months, though, because the poor guy is currently buying a new 90 foot yacht and has to go pick it up from the Mediterranean. So Rachel has thrown these events together and it's a really really neat place. Sherwayne and I watched the demonstration and then went upstairs to the gallery and bar part to watch open mic night. One girl got up to play guitar and sing who had never performed in front of people before. She was very good. 

    Sherwayne and I went back the next night to listen to a jazz trio. SO GOOD. So talented. I don't think the guy playing the double bass opened his eyes once because he was so into the music. And the singer, Hattie, was fantastic. I told my friend from school, Laura, about her later that night and Laura knows her from work. I found out that Hattie is only 17 years old.

  

Here is a sample if you want to hear. I really liked her up-beat, faster paced songs but I can't find a good one on youtube to share:

Hattie Simon

   I really like The Hive, so I'll be going back there to visit often. 

   I got a new project at school to work on. We were given an 11.1 meter sailboat to do a parametric study on. We had to look at the values given for the sail area, keel area, length over all vs. the length at the waterline, the displacement, the volume to keel area ratio, the draft of the canoe body and draft overall, and a whooooole lot of other stuff that we've learned. We then had to decide if the values were in the right ballpark for what this boat is meant to do. It is a cruising boat that is not meant for racing but can still perform well in light wind with six passengers. I changed a few things. Any boat experts out there will notice that the shape of the hull isn't correct (among other things) just by looking at the pictures below. I am not sure what our next step will be in the assignment, but I am guessing we will fix the design however we see fit and then add an interior arrangement including an appropriately sized rudder, engine, propeller, mast, plumbing and electrical arrangements, etc. 

   This is our final project for this semester... but I don't know when the end of the semester is. End of January or February? So I'll keep posting updates about this project. After this sailboat project I am hoping we will finally move onto powerboats!

I probably won't post again for a few weeks. I get to come home for Christmas in 6 days! I haven't seen Tag, Rocco, or Jon since August.... I don't think? I've seen Mom, Dad, Kelly, and Sammi..... And Devin and his whole family! haha. 

So I am excited to see my three brothers again. 

   I got back to Iowa during Thanksgiving break. It was awesome to see Devin again. I stayed with him during break and spent Thanksgiving with his family. He took me out to shoot guns on one of the days. I haven't shot a gun for a while... since, like, the bb guns at Camp Foster. So above is a picture of our wounded target after we were done shooting. I say "wounded" and not "dead" because we never actually hit the center of the target. Devin still had to sight the shotgun.... so that is our excuse. 

Can you see the target in the distance in this picture?

Do I look like I know what I am doing? Devin had to take this picture and then come stand behind me because I wasn't used to the kick. I may have let out a little scream as I shot and fell backwards.... and had a bruise on my arm the next day. But it was a lot of fun and I laughed a lot.... and I think Devin was maybe laughing at me.

But I did hit the target and made it fall over!

   Devin and I drove back to Des Moines and went through Ames to pick up Kelly to go out for dinner. Dad surprised me by bringing Sammi to Ames. I WAS SO HAPPY. I didn't want to say bye to Sammi after dinner so Devin let her stay with us that night.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

   This is what we got to deal with until bedtime. Throw the ball. But there wasn't anywhere to throw it further than five feet.

   I got back to Kennebunkport late Sunday night. The town was decorated for Christmas when I returned. So I took some pictures. This giant tree is in Dock Square. Did I post a picture of this in my last blog post already? Oh well. Its ornaments are lobster buoys and the star on top is held by a lobster. Kennebunkport is rated as the 2nd best place to visit in the country for Christmas festivities. There was a Christmas Prelude this weekend that I went to. It had a bunch of events going on including an ugly hat contest, craft fairs, food sampling, and the main event: The Tree Lighting Ceremony. 

Following are some pictures from the ugly hat contest:

Leg lamp hat:

Goose hat:

The Grinch and that Who girl:

Here is the video of the tree lighting. I couldn't get a good shot of how many hundreds of people were there because it was so dark. But it was a big event. The mayor gave a speech and had us count down from 39 which is the number of years they've been doing this tree lighting tradition. I started filming when we finally got to the 10 second countdown. Now the tree will remain lit until Christmas.

   So that's it. My fish are still doing well. Still alive. I'll be home for Christmas in two weeks :)